Chapter 209: The Circle and the Lesson

All eyes turned toward the boy who had just broken ranks. His boots beat against the earth as he sprinted toward Orion, both hands gripping his longsword so tightly his knuckles blanched.

Orion did not so much as blink.

He merely shifted his weight slightly, watching the blade’s descent. Then, just as the edge cut through the air toward him, Orion sidestepped lightly—so fluidly it almost seemed he had drifted. With one finger, he flicked the flat of the sword.

The clang rang sharp and hollow. The boy stumbled a few steps, struggling to keep his footing.

Orion’s tone was calm, almost instructive. "Your grip is wrong," he said, reaching forward to adjust the boy’s stance. "If you hold it that tight, your own strength works against you."

The boy blinked up at him, red-faced, panting.

"See this?" Orion pointed to the tremor running through the boy’s forearms. "Your hands shake because you’re fighting your weapon. I’ve told you all numerous times, a blade is meant to become an extension of you, not an anchor you’re trying to drag through the dirt."

He circled behind him, pressing a light hand on his shoulder. "And you need to relax. You are too tense. You can’t hear the rhythm of a fight if all you’re listening to is your own panic. And that war cry?" A faint smirk touched his lips. "That was wholly unnecessary. Your breathing was enough to give you away. Next time, control your breathing, be discreet, and please don’t forget to practice everything you’ve been taught. You just rushed in like a novice, and I thought with what we’ve been doing here you’d at least be more than the average novice who’s just picking a sword for the first time."

A ripple of quiet laughter broke through the tension.

The boy flushed deeper, lowering his weapon. But Orion clapped a hand to his shoulder. "But you were the first to move," he said simply. "And that’s all that matters. You can sit this one out."

"B... but the test..."

"You already qualify for it because you were not a coward like the rest of them. You get to take the test next week."

The boy’s surprise melted into a wide grin. "Thank you, Alpha!"

Orion nodded once. "Go rest your arms before they fall off."

The trainees exhaled, tension easing for only a heartbeat—before Orion’s next words sent energy crackling through the air again.

"Well," he said lazily, "what are the rest of you waiting for? Are you still going to be cowards?"

It was all the provocation they needed.

A rush of movement exploded from the edges of the ring. Archers drew, strings creaking. Axes flashed in the light. Spears and longswords followed, a wave of motion converging toward the small circle Orion stood in. He didn’t move to defend himself—he just rolled his shoulders and twirled the twin swords.

Quite confident, Noctis said to him.

Orion smiled. "That’s because I have you."

Noctis huffed, but there was this excitement that spread through both him and Orion’s veins in anticipation of what was to come.

The first arrows flew.

Orion turned, twin blades slicing through the air in synchronized arcs. Each arrow split mid-flight, fragments spinning harmlessly to the ground. Then the melee fighters came, yelling, steel glinting.

Still, Orion didn’t budge.

He met every attack like water meets a rock—absorbing, redirecting, never yielding. His foot never crossed the faint line of dust that marked his circle. Each parry, each flick of his wrist was a lesson: no wasted motion, no sound louder than his own steady breath.

A few trainees dropped to the ground, panting, muttering disbelief. "He hasn’t even moved an inch!"

Sophia stood at the rear with her group—Dren beside her, Cat adjusting her grip on her axe, Micah quiet as always. Around them, the clangs and shouts filled the air.

Nia frowned. "Why are we still standing here? Everyone else is in there."

Sophia’s gaze stayed on Orion. "Because charging blindly won’t make us better," she said softly. "It’ll only give out the fact that we are not better or ready."

Micah nodded. "True. Alpha Orion said that yesterday. ’The first fool in the fight is the one who believes speed equals strategy.’"

Nia smiled at that. "It seems we all know who the fool is."

Sophia returned her smile. "But that’s not all it is. Alpha Orion is trying to provoke us, and we rose to the provocation without a plan in place, which is already a loss for us."

Micah nodded. "That boy may have been a fool for charging in first, but the others are fools too for charging in without a plan."

"So we wait first?" Laia asked incredulously.

Nia scoffed at her sister. "We observe, you idiot. This isn’t something we can rush into. We know the opponent is stronger than us, and that’s why we wait."

"So we learn from others’ mistakes?" Cat asked.

Sophia nodded. "Yes. He," she said, pointing toward Orion, "wants us to put everything he has been teaching us—everything we’ve learned since the beginning of training—into practice. It’s like a test for not just us but him too, to see where he needs to improve when teaching us and to see if we are actually able to put everything we’ve learned into a real fight. He made the stakes a bit high by placing that condition about us being eligible for the test, so it’s training, but it’s not just that. It’s like a push for us."

"And if we fail, then we may as well give up on entering the ranks," Dren said.

"Yes," Sophia nodded. "But knowing Orion, there may be other conditions he hasn’t explicitly told us."

Cat sighed. "He is sneaky like that."

"I’m sure he’s observing very closely, and anyone who fails to meet his expectations..." Micah didn’t complete his sentence.

They could all imagine what would happen if they failed to meet Orion’s expectations.

"The issue now is, how do we defeat him?" Nia asked them.

"True," Micah said with a nod.

Sophia turned to them with a frown. "But he never said we should defeat him. He said we should make him step out of the circle."

Joren nodded. "If we do that... then we pass."

Cat tilted her head. "But that’s proving to be an impossible task."

"There must be a way," Micah said, and the others agreed as they watched in silence.